At today’s Apple event, the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus made their grand entrance, sticking with the classic 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch sizes, but now faster, thanks to the A18 chip, and packed with more buttons than you can shake a stick at. The customisable Action Button is brought in from the iPhone 15 Prs. Apple’s thrown in a new Capture Button for camera controls – just swipe and tap, because apparently pressing buttons is old school now.
The device is built for Apple Intelligence, and has been redesigned from the ground up. Colors on this device are more vivid than ever. You can pick from a total of five colors, including three new options: ultra marine, teal, and pink, white and black.
The latest iPhone has inherited the customisable Action Button from last year’s iPhone 15 Pro line-up. You can pretty much make this button do whatever you fancy—keep it as a ringer switch, like the old days, or reassign it to something more exciting. But Apple’s also introduced a new Camera Control button. It’s not a physical button you press, though; instead, you can tap, double tap, and slide your way through camera functions like it’s a touchscreen mini-game.
Clicking the Camera Control button opens the camera, and if you hold it, you'll launch into taking a video. It can distinguish between a light and hard press, as it's not a physical button. A light press, for example, will show you a cleaner preview; or you can press twice for additional controls.
The Camera Control button also enables an iPhone 16-exclusive Visual Intelligence feature. You can use it to snap instant photos that Apple Intelligence will analyse. It'll give you more information on what you're looking at, or let you interact with events. For example, you can add the event on a poster to your calendar. Images aren't stored on your device, however. It's very similar to Google Lens. You can even ask ChatGPT for guidance on what you're looking at.
Officially dubbed the 48MP Fusion Camera, the main sensor is still 48MP, but it now merges 12MP shots for brighter, crisper images. You’ve got dual telephoto options and a faster aperture to boot. On the video front, you can now shoot in 4K at 60fps with Dolby Vision HDR, so your videos are looking top-notch.
The 12MP ultrawide camera gets a nice bump too, with autofocus and a larger aperture that lets in 2.6x more light. Macro photography has finally made its way to this device, and you can even capture Spatial Photos or Videos for that extra depth. Oh, and there’s a slick new AI feature that scrubs out wind noise from your videos—so no more battling the elements when you’re trying to get that perfect shot.
Under the hood, things get a proper speed boost with Apple’s new A18 chip. It’s had a bit of a workout, making it perfect for all the AI Apple Intelligence magic coming in iOS 18. The A18 packs a 16-core neural engine built to handle large generative models with ease. Crafted with 2nd-gen 3nm tech, it’s all about smaller transistors, which means it’s faster and more energy efficient. It uses 35% less power than A16 for battery improvements, and Apple says it's better than any competitors.
We’re talking a 6-core CPU that’s 30% faster than the iPhone 15’s, and a GPU that’s a whopping 40% quicker. So, yeah, it’s safe to say this thing’s a performance beast. There's a new thermal design to improve gaming performance, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing has been added.
New this year, iPhone 16 has Wi-Fi 7 support built-in – up from the previous Wi-Fi 6E. Apple says its emergency satellite connectivity is even more reliable in this device.
You can pre-order iPhone 16 from Friday, and the device will be available from September 20. The standard size goes for $799, while the 16 Plus will set you back $899. Storage starts at 128GB, just like last year.
We're covering all the Apple iPhone 16 event announcements live as they happen. Don't miss all our iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, Apple Watch X, Apple Watch Ultra 3, iOS 18 and watchOS 11 coverage so far.
